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Disturbing incident at GOP convention

It’s not completely clear why what happened actually happened, but apparently a convention attendee or two started throwing food at a black CNN camera person:

CNN — Two people were removed from the Republican National Convention Tuesday after they threw nuts at an African-American CNN camera operator and said, “This is how we feed animals.” Multiple witnesses observed the exchange and RNC security and police immediately removed the two people from the Tampa Bay Times Forum.

The convention released a statement saying, “Two attendees tonight exhibited deplorable behavior. Their conduct was inexcusable and unacceptable. This kind of behavior will not be tolerated.”

So, two conservatives at a convention full of good ole boy southern racists happened to bully a black person with racially charged slurs, and that race happens to be the same as the democratic opponent they’ve been carefully stoked by racist misinformation to despise. Yeah, nothing to see here, move along folks…

one of the more interesting things about this story is that it broke on TPM. Actually, not quite. We first saw a tweet from David Shuster and then we got confirmation of what happened from CNN and were the first to run the story. (This morning the RNCC essentially confirmed something rotten had happened.) But you may have noticed that one of the biggest news organizations in the world — CNN — has been remarkably tight-lipped about this.

This is how cowed by the right wing loudmouths the so-called liberal media has become.

I believe that the people who run the convention were upset. Whether or not you believe it, you don’t say it. The people who run the convention want to make a profit and draw new conventions. They don’t want bad publicity. The ethics of the situation aren’t important. The money they could lose is.

“I ain’t a racist, but that Aristitle Onassis is one Greek we don’t need” (Spelling of Aristitle to reflect how Kinky pronounces it)

Sometimes I get the feeling Republicans are parodying themselves. Then I remember the Republicans I grew up with, and I realize that they are no longer the fringe. They are the new normal. (I don’t think my brother went to the RNC, but now I’m not so sure. Throwing nuts at people who don’t look like him would be exactly his idea of funny.)